Modern vehicles such as automobiles include multiple control systems that regulate the operation of various components of the vehicle. In many cases, the control systems use input data from one or more sensors. The sensors provide data that is used to optimize the vehicle's operation.
One sensor common to many vehicles is an accelerometer. A vehicle's accelerometer senses and outputs the vehicle's longitudinal acceleration aLong. Typically, the output of a vehicle's accelerometer is used as an input to other vehicle systems. For example, longitudinal acceleration aLong may be used by a vehicle control system either individually or in combination with other sensor output signals to determine the vehicle's speed or distance traveled, as well as vehicle power.
However, many other vehicle control systems may be improved by incorporating an accelerometer output into their control methods. Specifically, a clutch touch point adaptation system, a clutch control system and a shift schedule system may all be improved by using a longitudinal acceleration aLong output signal from a vehicle's accelerometer.